COUNTERCOLUMN: All Your Bias Are Belong to Us

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Saturday, September 23, 2006

Arming Predators

Much is being made now of the video now circulationg in which a Predator UAV had Osama Bin Ladin in its sights - yet the then POTUS Bill Clinton did nothing.

Clinton's defenders will point out that he could not have done anything, because the Predator was unarmed.

This is what happens when we give command authority to lawyers. In a decision illustrative of the difference between the Clinton and Bush II Administrations, the Clinton Administration CHOSE not to arm Predators, even though they were more than capable of carrying a precision guided missile.

Why?

Because according to the Clinton Administration's grossly inane reading of the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty that we signed with the USSR - a country that didn't even exist anymore - an unmanned aerial vehicle that carried an antitank missile was considered a cruise missile.

And so the Clinton Administration essentially tucked its penis between its legs before going to bed with the girl.

According to the treaty, the US could not deploy a ground-launched cruise missile with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. So the Clinton Administration Lawyers looked at a UAV, originally designed for surveillance missions, imagined that it might be able to actually shoot what it saw, had a fit of the vapors, and promptly defenestrated one of our best tools in the fight against Al Qaeda.

I'd fire lawyers like that.

In the Clinton Administration, lawyers like that get promoted.

At any rate, the Bush Administration looked at that policy and saw how stupid it was. And so they reversed the Clinton policy, and took the position that no, dumbass, a UAV Plus a Hellfire Antitank Missile does not a "cruise missile" make. And so they promptly hung a Hellfire on the UAV, and successfully test fired the first one at Eglin Air Force Base on 21 February 2001 - less than a month after Bush took office.

That didn't take long, huh?

What a cowboy.

So next time some Clintonite tries to tell you that Clinton could not have killed Bin Ladin that day if he wanted to, remind him or her that it was Clinton's own damn fault. He may have drawn his sword, but deliberately left the blade in the scabbard.

Dollars to donuts that if Bush had waited until after September 11th to arm predators, there'd be Democrats arguing that he's disregarding International Law in doing so.

Jason, I have been reading your blog for a few years now and don't think I have ever commented. Your blog was one of a few that kept me sane every time my AF husband deployed overseas while we were at Pope. You have written so many wonderful things whether polictical, your news ticker tapes, your music items ...I should have commented before to tell you how much I love your blog, but today you made me laugh and I just had to comment. Your comments in your post-script made me laugh. Thank you for the time you put into your blog. Lee

Unfortunately, long after Clinton is gone, and five years after 9/11, the damn lawyers are still running the show. Here we had a shot at 100 Taliban, but the lawyers said we couldn't fire because the were in a cemetary.

That's just crazy! I don't give a damn where they are, if you have 100 bad guys (or for that matter, two bad guys) all in one place, push the button already. It is really hard to take the administration seriously as "stronger on national security" when this kind of thing happens. We might as well be back under Clinton if this is the way we're going to fight (i.e. half-assed and ineffectual).